EVALUATION OF THE PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

For the preliminary exercise we worked in a group of three. I worked with Dianne Hamilton and Kirsten Day. In order to be sure there were enough people to act and film we teamed up with another group, who acted for us. In return, we did acting for their exercise.

Before we could even begin filming we had to create a storyboard and a script. We all created individual storyboards and then compared them. As a group we planned a final storyboard which detailed what each shot would be and the camera angles. We then drew up a rough script which consisted of a simple conversation relating to what the characters were doing that evening. This meant that it did not take away from the filming techniques we were trying to show. Once this had all been sorted we had to collect our equipment and set it up correctly. We were using a camera, tripod and microphone in order to capture the sound of our actors talking. There were a lot of wires involved so we carried the equipment together to avoid anyone tripping over anything. Once everything was set up we began filming. In order to make sure everyone had a fair shot at filming we each did two shots and then swapped over. Whilst one person was filming, the other would hold the microphone and the other would note down the shot timings. This was really helpful when it came to editing because we knew exactly where the shots were on the tape and which ones we wanted to use. When it came down to editing we took turns and each had input. This meant that by the time it comes to editing our final piece we will all know how to do everything involved and can identify out strengths and weaknesses in order to work more productively as a group. As a whole I think we did really well, and each helped each other to succeed. I feel I learnt a lot and so did the others in my group. In terms of skills, I learnt how to use an external microphone which I'd never used before. I also learnt how to edit in Final Cut Pro I think I did quite well with the new skills, and didn't really struggle.

Focusing more on the actual exercise, the technical quality is quite good. However, there are a few mistakes. During the first part we were shooting in a corridor and because of the amount of equipment and people we were quite restricted with space. This meant that when the actor reaches the door their head gets cut off. This was somewhat unavoidable, so it would have been nicer to have used a wider corridor or different setting. Once we were inside the room we had a lot more space so the shots in the room are much better. However, as the actor sits down he lets out a little laugh. The exercise would have looked a lot better if we had re-shot that, as it looks somewhat unprofessional. The sound is good and even throughout, however there is a small blip around 24 seconds where we clearly left the shot too long. This was something that went wrong in the editing process and we clearly missed when reviewing the final exercise. In future, I would want to pay much more attention to the sound to be sure things like this don't happen. I also think it is a little jumpy during the conversation, there seem to be a lot of shots for such a short amount of time. I think we were trying to show all the shots we could do, but in future should probably stretch them over more time. The conversation was quite fast, and we should have probably asked the actors to talk a little slower. However, I feel the composition is quite good and the actors are framed well in the shots. The mise-en-scene was good as the actors look like college students and it is clear they are in a college environment. The narrative works well as it is clear they are friends talking about their plans for later on. We didn't really have a genre for this as it was just a simple exercise. Also, it was not screened to an audience so we do not have any audience feed back. Due to the fact it was essentially a warm up exercise the point of it was more to practice and enhance our skills, not to please others. I feel our ideas came across well and we followed our original storyboard. We also showed examples of the 180 degree line rule and made sure the actors eye contact lined up to make it look like a realistic conversation.

Overall, I am quite pleased with out preliminary exercise and think we did really well for a first try. There are obviously mistakes and things we could have fixed, but some of these we only found after completing the exercise. The only different thing I think we could have done would have been to use less shots, and slow things down a little to make it look calmer and less sudden. I think the text at the beginning is a little long too, especially since the exercise is quite short. Apart from that, I am quite proud of what we achieved and think our group worked really well.

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

In order to demonstrate a basic level of skill and knowledge we had to do a preliminary exercise, before we could start preparing for our contemporary noir opening. Our brief was to film a short task, and edit it. It had to consist of a character walking to a door, opening it, walking across a room, sitting down and having a short conversation with another character who was already in the room. The task had to demonstrate use of the 180 degree line rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot.

Before we could begin filming, we had to do some preparation. We had to create a group storyboard using no more than eight shots. We had to script the dialogue that our characters would say, and keep it simple so that actors would not having trouble learning it. Once this was done we went to film our exercise. We then used the Macs and Final Cut Pro to edit all the shots together.

ANALYSIS OF A FILM OPENING: JUNO

Juno is a comedy-drama film from 2007. It was directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. It stars Ellen Page as Juno, a young teenage girl who falls pregnant, and Michael Cera as the father of her child. The film follows Juno's choices in giving the baby to a rich couple who can not have children, and what happens to all the families involved during the duration of the pregnancy. Although the subject of the film is teenage pregnancy and is not often a happy thing, the main feeling of the film is up-beat. The opening is Juno walking to the chemists to get a pregnancy test, and is done in animated form. 

The pace of the opening is quite slow, as we follow Juno on her walk to the chemists. It begins in live action but changes into animation shortly after the walk begins. In order to create the title credits more interesting it seems that they have made an animated short, instead of just having the plain boring text pop up on screen like many films do. Since it is an animation, you cannot convey the same moment as you can in live action so the cinematography is quite simple. There is clever used of soft pastel background colours which contrast with the hard colours of Juno's clothing. She is contrasting the soft background, and really stands out. Also, at some points there is no colour at all in the background, but Juno stays coloured in. The main prop is the bottle of Sunny D which Juno regularly drinks from. There is also a lot of nature; trees, falling leaves, etc. The location is animated, but gives the impression that we are in a small town as we see cars, houses and small shops. The background music is a very important part of the opening. The whole film has a very similar sounding soundtrack and songs are used regularly. The opening lasts as long as the song does, it is quite a happy song which match the calmness of the opening. At this point in the film the viewer is unaware that Juno is pregnant so don't understand where she is going. The music almost tricks the viewer into thinking she is going somewhere nice and fun, when in fact she is going to find out her fate. The names of those involved in creating the film appear on numerous places in the animated form of the town. For example, on walls or windows. The font is quite thick and looks as if it has been hand coloured, much like the animation itself. The narrative is

basically a young girl walking through her neighbourhood drinking Sunny D. It's a regular moment that happens millions of times a day all over the world. The enigma is 'what is her purpose? where is she going? why is she going there?'. We are introduced into the character of Juno, and all we know about her is she is young, apparently likes Sunny D and is going somewhere. We have no reason to dislike her, and she looks like quite a nice girl so the audience is more likely to be sympathetic to her once they discover her situation. We also briefly see high school runners, but they are in the background and are not really focused on. The titles give an impression that this is a low budget indie film due to the use of the basic animation. Not many clues are given to the genre, we know it will relate to young people so assume it will be some sort of teen movie. It doesn't really grip the viewer, but charms them. It almost grabs the viewer by the hand and says 'hey, come watch this, it'll be nice'.

ANALYSIS OF A FILM OPENING: SIN CITY

Sin City is a 2005 American neo-noir crime film. It was produced and directed by Frank Miller and Rober Rodriguez and was based on Miller's graphic novel series also named Sin City. It stars Bruce Wllis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Elijah Wood and many others. The film follows three stories; one about a man who goes on a brutal rampage following the murder of his lover, the second about a street war between some prostitutes and some mercenaries, and the third about a police officer who is protecting a woman from a serial killer. The opening scene is based around the first story, and was created much before the rest of the film by Rodriguez in order to show Miller he could translate the graphic novels into a film without loosing their original content.

The scene opens with a woman walking over to a balcony in a red dress. Everything else is in black and white but her dress and her lipstick. A man walks up behind her and she turns around. He offers her a cigarette, which she takes. They kiss and he holds her, then shoots her and she dies in his arms. The camera then zooms out to an overview of the city and the buildings are in the shape of the film title 'Sin City', which then turn red and block out to leave just the text. The pace is quite slow, and the viewer does not expect the woman to be killed. However, as soon as she is it gives a firm idea of what the rest of the film will be like. It starts with a high angle shot, showing the vulnerability of the woman. The next shot is a mid shot, showing the two characters interacting. There is a lot of use of over the shoulder shots and close ups to show the emotion of the characters. When the woman in on the floor dying in the man's arms, it is a high angle shot in heavy rain. This is when the overview of the city takes over. The editing is very smooth and flows well. There is a moment where the two characters kiss, and the shot becomes almost cartoon like. This is because the kiss is staged, and the man is actually a hit man that has been hired to kill the woman. However, the audience does not know this so the sudden use of animation creates an enigma. The location is a terrace, attached to a large building. This gives the impression of wealth, although the location itself is not clear. We assume we are in a large city due to the overview.

The costumes are evening wear, and look expensive. They fit in well with the surroundings. The only props used are the cigarettes, lighter and the gun that kills the woman. The cigarettes and gun are actually mentioned in the voice over narrative so we get the impression that they are heavily important to the story line. The characters speak in a very hard boiled sense, much like the old Film Noir films. As this is a neo-noir, this has clearly been done on purpose to introduce the audience to the genre. There is use of a voice over, another convention of Film Noir, which adds more mystery as the things the character is saying do not seem to match the images we are seeing. For example, he says 'I'll never know what she was running from. I'll cash her cheque in the morning.', whilst we assume that he knows her because of the way they act together before he kill her. The background music is quiet jazz, and follows the mood and rhythm of the speech. It stops at the sound effect of the gun shot and then different music takes over as the camera moves away from the characters. It becomes more modern and dynamic, whilst still having jazz elements. It reflects the change of atmosphere, as a murder has just been committed and the audience does not know why. The title font is very plain, and very much in the style of Film Noir. The text is all one colour, a red which could represent blood as we have just witnessed a murder. The only title used is the name of the film, we do not see the names of actors, directors or anyone else who made the film. This means that there is no other text to distract the viewer from the action. The narrative is quite clear, yet very confusing. At first it seems that the pair are a couple but as soon as the man shoots the woman this creates an enigma, 'why did he do that?'. We don't really find out much about the characters, which creates another enigma. The audience immediately take a disliking to the man because he kills the woman and talks about cashing a cheque. This gives him in the impression of being corrupt and evil, and she seems defenseless. The production value looks quite high end since the opening is very sophisticated, and smooth. The genre is clearly noir, the atmosphere and voice over narrative are perfect examples of classic Film Noir conventions. The opening certainly grips the audience since it creates an enigma, and the audience wants to know why the opening scene has happened and what it means.

ANALYSIS OF A FILM OPENING: SE7EN

The 1995 film Se7en is categorised as a crime film with neo-noir and horror elements. It was directed by David Fincher and starred Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. They play two detectives who become involed with a case concerning a series of sadistic murders relating to each of the seven deadly sins. The opening sequence is a series of moving images that look like a person creating a sick scrapbook filled with strange images and phrases. The names of those involed in making the film also appear in white text, mostly against a plain black background whilst the camera shakes.

The pace and rhythm of the opening is really fast, which gives the audience an uneasy feeling. This sets up the whole feeling of the film, as a good opening should. The cuts and traditions are quick, and the images are often only on screen for a second or two. This leaves the audience confused and often wondering what it was they just saw. For example, at the start of the opening there is a glimpse of a hand holding an old fashioned razor blade and it looks as if he is cutting of the skin on his fingertips. However, it moves so quickly that you are not actually sure that is what you saw, or that is what you are meant to have seen. The shots are taken from all angles and heights, again to heighten the confusion of the viewer. The camera work is quite shaky and moves very suddenly. The result is a very jerky series of images. Most of the shots are very close up to the objects, meaning the viewer gets not sense of location. In fact, some shots are so close that they are out of focus which makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and unsure of what is happening. The props are very important as they are basically all you see. They are things such as books, razorblades, needles, photographs, scissors, pens, negatives and even drops of blood. In the short duration of the opening there is a large amount of props which makes the viewer even more confused. The whole opening is aimed at giving the audience hints of what is to come, and each prop had a significance. You never actually see a full person, only their hands so costume and performance are not really significant in this opening. This almost makes it more eerie because the audience has no way to establish a connection with the character. Lighting wise, here is a great deal of play between light and shadow, and there is not much colour apart from the strong presence of red in a few moment where it looks as if someone is developing photographs in a dark room. There is a song in the background which is Closer by Nine Inch Nails. It is very scratchy, and has a quite sinister tone. As the music speeds up it comes to the point where you hear the lyrics 'you get me closer to God', which in itself relates to the film as it is about the idea of the seven deadly sins. At this point the shots get much faster and the audience barely gets a chance to get a good look at them before they change. The titles are written in different and uneven fonts, and are placed in random sections on the screen. They also flash and move around as if there is no discipline to them. The text is in white, and mostly against a black background. At moments scratchy text appears for less than a second and is often unreadable. This gives the impression that the film has been tampered with, and something is wrong. The narrative is unclear, and in fact it is quite difficult to decide what is going on. As I previously mentioned, it looks as if someone is cutting of their fingertips, and later in the opening there is a hand with bandages around the fingertips. The enigma that is set up is simply 'why?' and 'is is possibly they have attempted to cut away their finger prints...ergo are they doing/planning to do something illegal?'. This is basically the only introduction to this character we get, which isn't much of an introduction at all. All we know is the detail of the fingerprints, and that they are creating some sort of morbid scrapbook. However, since we don't see the face of the character we can't actually be sure it was all one person, although this is implied. This creates another enigma, 'who is this person?'. The opening does not look particularly high budget, it is not filled with special effects and stunts but if it was it would not suit the whole tone of the film. The opening really fits in with the film, and grips the viewer. After seeing it the audience really want to know what the story is. There is so many clues and hints packed into such a short amount of time, it is almost impossible to not be gripped by it.

ANALYSIS OF A NEO NOIR: BRICK

Brick is a 2005 American film written and directed by Rian Johnson. He was inspired by the hardboiled detective novels written by Dashiell Hammett, and set out to create a detective film like the Film Noirs he had watched in his childhood. However, he did not want to simply imitate them, and instead wanted to create one of his own. This is why he chose to set the film in a high school turning it into a contemporary Neo Noir.

The film follows California high school student Brendan Frye, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who chooses to alienate himself from his fellow students. This turns him into the classic Film Noir character of the loner, the anti-hero. The film begins with him looking at the body of an unknown blonde girl, who is clearly dead. The scene then changes to Brendan at his locker, and text appears on screen saying ‘Two days earlier’. This is a characteristic of Film Noir in which the narrative begins at the end, and the story is then told to explain what has happened. It is later revealed that the blonde girl is Brendan’s ex girlfriend, Emily played by Emilie de Ravin, who he has previously received a distressed call from. Brendan attempts to find her and sort out her problems, but she is killed before he can. He decides to find who killed her, and why, which leads him to become involved with The Pin, played by Lukas Haas, a drug baron and his violent associate Tug, played by Noah Fleiss, who spends the majority of the film punching or threatening people, including Brendan. A stock character in Film Noir is the Femme Fatale, and in Brick she comes in the form of Laura Dannon, played by Nora Zehetner. She is the popular high school girl involved in The Pin’s dealings. Throughout the film she tries to get Brendan to trust her, and consistently offers him lifts. In the last scene of the film she stands with Brendan on the school field after he has discovered that Emily’s death was partly caused by Laura blaming her for stealing drugs. He harshly tells her everything he knows, whilst she begs him to believe her that he is wrong and cries. In this scene she wears a coat with a fur trim, echoing the style of the Femme Fatales of the classic Film Noir era. There is also another female that could be considered a Femme Fatale, although she appears in the film much less often. Kara, played by Meagan Good, is the seductive actress in the school play. Brendan goes to her for information a few times in the film, and it becomes clear that they have a past although it is not expanded on. Brendan says ‘Still picking your teeth with freshmen?‘ to which Kara answers ‘Well, you were a freshman once.‘

The storyline in Brick is centred on a murder, much like many of the classic Film Noirs. It also incorporates drugs and the ideology that people are not to be trusted. For example, Assistant Vice Principle Trueman, played by Richard Roundtree, represents the higher authority in this film. It would be assumed that he would be a moral and truthful person as he is partly in charge of hundreds of highly impressionable teenagers. Instead, he tries to get Brendan to snitch on his fellow students, and then agrees to keep his name out of any trouble that occurs. This is reminiscent of the bent coppers often found in Film Noir. In fact, as the film continues it seems more and more that Brendan can’t trust anyone and they all have something to hide.

The characters use very hardboiled language, much like was used in classic Noir. This clearly comes from Johnson’s love of hardboiled novels. Brendan is the leader in this, and the majority of his script is highly quotable. For example, in one of his first conversations with Laura she says ‘I know everyone, and I have all the time in the world.’ Brendan then follows up with ‘Ah, the folly of youth.’ Admittedly, it is somewhat strange hearing this language from teenagers but this adds a modern feel to the film reminding us that we’re not watching classic Noir, but in fact Neo Noir. Adults are rarely scene in the film, and when The Brain, Brendan’s main aide, is describing The Pin he says ‘he's supposed to be old, like 26.’ This highlights the focus on high school students.

Sound is very important in Brick, much like it was in classic Noir. The music would usually be downbeat jazz and piano music. In Brick there is a lot of use of traditional instruments, especially the piano, trumpet and violin. However, there is a small part in the film in which Brendan goes to a pie store to speak to some drug addicts and the background music is made up mainly of a banjo. This is something that would not have been found in Film Noir, but seems to fit in well with the desolate American scenery that Brick puts across. Much like in Film Noir, the danger and crime doesn’t just happen in the seedy areas. Brendan is often seen using phone booths on dusty roads, giving the impression that his America is somewhat of a wasteland. Film Noir spread the message of social depravation and Brick’s violent, drug addicted characters put forward this message again. Instead of showing a land affected by war, we see a land affected by sex, violence and drugs. In the modern age, these are often issues covered by the mass media much like the war was back in the classic Noir era.

The film was mainly received well by critics, and made $3.9 million worldwide. It ranked 35 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 Best High School Movies and 489th on Empire magazine’s list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. Kristi Mitsuda from indieWIRE.com said that she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen “a movie as purely and perfectly entertaining as Rian Johnson‘s Sundance prize-winning debut feature, Brick.” Most reviews, as well as Mitsuda’s classified the film as an excellent example of Neo Noir. I think Brick has the ability to appeal to a wide audience, for one lovers of Film Noir would probably enjoy this modern revival. It is also likely to appeal to teenagers as it is set in their natural surroundings.